Religion & Beliefs

YOU tell Faithhacker Why Men are Such Lazy Schmucks

Today I was in a very interesting conversation… about how the Jewish community can best involve and engage men in religious/cultural life. Because evidently the Jewish community has discovered that men don’t want to get involved. Needless to say, the … Read More

Today I was in a very interesting conversation… about how the Jewish community can best involve and engage men in religious/cultural life. Because evidently the Jewish community has discovered that men don’t want to get involved. Needless to say, the conversation went a lot like this.

“We could invite them to join a book club?”

“Nah, men don’t like to join stuff.”

“So, maybe we could just get their wives to come to something, and they’ll drag the men along.”

Which pretty much defeats the purpose, right? But what can you do?

I spent years with Hillel trying to drag people into affiliating. To get people to show up to programs, and give us email addresses and phone numbers. It rarely works in great numbers. People don’t like being dragged.

At the same time, I’m thinking about how much it bugs me that women ARE the force behind most Jewish programming. They organize, attend, bring food, drag the kids. They oversee educational efforts and sit on committees. Honestly, I do believe that, by and large, they make the Jewish world happen.

But they aren’t in charge.

I want to get the numbers on this (number that were thrown around in the conversation that inspired this post). I think it’s upsetting. Men like to run things. Men are rabbis, board presidents, executive directors, and (I’m not talking about you, Tahl) editors… but my gut says that it isn’t Daddy waking everyone up for services on Saturday morning.

So, dudes, why are you so lazy? Why do you want to steer a ship you aren’t really riding (statistically) anyway?